After several months planning and a few weeks hard work decorating the Aslan Bookshop in St Stephen’s in the City the doors have finally opened for business. The shop is small but we have packed a substantial amount of stock into a tight space and we are looking for innovative ways to fit in even more.

Lydia, Portia and Richard spent over two weeks completely redecorating the room to be used for the shop and the folk at St Stephen’s liked the work we had done so much that they then stripped the wooden floor for us. Then the A Great Read team came along with the basic fixtures and after that it was up to us to start sourcing the antique and Edwardian furniture that would give the shop a C.S. Lewis flavour. This proved to be great fun – especially when it came to bidding at auctions – and has, we hope, resulted in a shop which is distinctive and attractive. Finally, after all the stock was in place, the rug on the floor and the pictures on the walls, Aslan himself came to visit. In fact, he liked the shop so much he has taken up residency and has proved to be very popular with customers.

Another trip to the auction house provided us with a very fine standard lamp. Yes, we know it should be a street light, but space is limited and this was the closest we could find that looked attractive and seemed to be in the spirit of Narnia. Work remains to be done on the signage and the interior lighting, but we have created a shop which we hope will be a pleasure to visit, from all the main perspectives of service, stock and ambience.

So, now it is the time for us to keep on hitting the phone lines, the emails and the mailings to let as many folk as possible know that we are here and ready to serve them.

Do come and visit us if you get the chance.

Our contact details and opening hours are available on the St Stephen’s page of this blog.